5 YA Psychological Thrillers Featuring A Boss Girl Protagonist

What better read is there than one with a female lead who isn't afraid to break the rules? Whether it's Seneca from The Amateurs solving a mystery about a missing girl or an undercover agent that's trying to figure out who, or what, she is in The Chemist. These 5 mystery thrillers are an ode to boss girls everywhere.

1. The Amateurs by Sara Shepard

Seneca Frazier sees a post about Helena Kelly’s disappearance on the Case Not Closed website and she’s hooked. After all, it was Kelly’s disappearance five years ago that got Seneca interested in true crime. When Maddy Wright, a fellow CNC site user, invites Seneca to Connecticut to explore the case, she the jumps on the chance. Brett, a CNC site user, and Aerin, Helena’s sister, join them in their such. The group begins to unravel shocking secrets but little do they know the killer is watching and is willing to do what it takes to keep the truth from being revealed.

2. This Is Our Story by Ashley Elston

Five boys went hunting at River Point and only four came back. No one will say who shot Grant but it could have been anyone. Kate Marino’s senior year internship at the District Attorney office has been unexciting as it gets until the Rover Point Boys case comes up. The only problem: the DA wants the case swept under the rug because he owes the boys’ families. Kate isn’t going to let that happen. She and her boss Mr. Stone are determined to figure out what happened and soon discover this accident might not have been an accident at all.

3. The Chemist by Stephenie Meyer

She’s an ex-agent but to clear her name she takes on one more case. She used to be the expert in her field, the darkest secrets of the agency. But when she became a liability they wanted her dead, and still do. To get them offer back she head on the adventure of a lifetime, only to acquire information that’s even more dangerous. Told in Meyer’s realistic prose, The Chemist is a gripping page-turner that tells the story of a new kind of heroine.

4. The Forgotten Room by Karen White, Beatriz Williams and Lauren Willig

In1945 Captain Cooper Ravenal is brought to a private hospital on Manhattan’s Upper East Side carrying a portrait of a woman. Dr. Kate Schuley wonders why the woman in the portait looks so much like her and why she is wearing the ruby pendant given to Kate by her mother. The captain and doctor soon find themselves caught in a mystery that connects three generations of women in Kate’s family all to one room in a Gilded Age Mansion. But are Kate and Cooper ready for the secrets contained in the forgotten room?

5. Shutter by Laurie Faria Stolarz

Day Connor is sixteen and sees life through the lens of her camera. When she crosses paths with Julian, a sixteen-year-old escapee from juvi wanted for murder, she realizes that photographs don’t always tell the whole story. Julian doesn’t seem like the dangerous guy everyone makes him out to be but his story doesn’t add up either. Day can’t help but feel the chemistry between them but is also wondering if she’s falling for a trick? She’s takes the investigation into her own hands, determined to get to the bottom of it. But things aren’t always as they seem, even if there’s photo evidence.